2007.09.26 Homecoming is history

When I received a short note from Morenci teacher Caryn Shaner about homecoming, I suppose I could have tried to discourage her.

She told me the theme for homecoming floats would be Morenci history. The theme is usually something like movies, TV shows, super heroes or board games. Some tiring idea that repeats every few years.

Morenci history, she said. Something different, something that could connect the youngsters with some older folks and help them learn more about their community.

Instead of asking, “Are you crazy?” I said that I loved the idea. I think I used the word delicious.

Then I contacted the local pastors to ask that Caryn be added to their prayer chains.

Morenci history? I challenge you to come up with four significant events in Morenci history that could be translated into a homecoming float for high school classes. Floats generally follow the theme of “Beat Clinton!” or “Trample the Redskins!”

This is the first year for Clinton to compete in the Tri-County Conference and Morenci’s football team will face the Redskins for the final game of the season. Doing anything to the Redskins sounds a little rude. I wish they would come up with a new mascot.

I started thinking about Morenci history and the first thing that came to mind was when the so-called rubber factory burned down—burned twice, actually. Now how can you work the Redskins into that theme? If only we were playing the Madison Trojans that night.

Maybe we don’t need a “Cudgel Clinton” theme this time around. Just show some Morenci history, and the more obscure the better, perhaps.

That meant it was time to contact Jim Whitehouse who really knows that sort of thing.

He remembered the story about Harry Moore and the napalm. He wasn’t sure Harry was involved, but so many stories from that era were about Harry, he said, so he made it a Harry story.

There were a pair of guns next to the monument in front of the auditorium and a couple guys (one of them Harry?) made a napalm-like substance in chemistry class. They packed the gun barrels with it one night, set up a fuse and waited for a passing vehicle, which turned out to be a large truck.

They touched off the fuel and twin jets of fire raged all the way across Main Street in front of the truck. The driver, in an understandable panic, slammed the brakes and the truck jack-knifed in the middle of the road, doing a much more effective job of stopping traffic than the totally unnecessary stoplight.

The gun barrels were soon filled with concrete, Jim says, and if you don’t believe him, go down to Wakefield Park and check it out.

That might make an interesting float and perhaps his next recollection would, also: the old swaying football bridge across Bean Creek. He remembers when David McVay fell through a rotten plank. Maybe Clinton football players could fall through on a float.

Jim eventually realized that our biggest claim to fame is that Morenci, Ariz., is named after us. Maybe the sophomore class could make a model of the big open pit copper mine. “Send Clinton to the Pit!” or some such nonsense.

I mentioned the float business to my father who thought along the lines of “how it used to be” rather than a specific historical event.

Maybe the old town band could be replicated with their distinctive hats or perhaps a float could depict forming corn shocks.

I sent a few ideas off to Caryn: making a wrecking ball to destroy old buildings such as the hotel, the mill and the auditorium; depicting the arrival of rail service to Morenci; taming the virgin land with a team of Bulldogs; making a sawmill or a brick factory. Really great float ideas. I almost mentioned Jim’s suggestion about the famous football winning streak of the early 1950s. And that brought to mind the track winning streak and a host of other athletic achievements.

Homecoming is scheduled Oct. 19. Construction begins that week. There must be four historical moments that would work.

Or are they even sticking with local history? I wrote Caryn and asked how things were going. She never wrote back. Did she ever return to school? Is she now just part of Morenci History?